A youth shelter run by an Orange County-based child services agency is housing some of the Central American children who have crossed illegally and been sent to California. , FILE

Recent Developments

• On Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection discussed an "aggressive Spanish language" campaign in the United States and Central America to alert people that the journey north is treacherous and "there are no permisos (authorizations)for those crossing."

• President Obama wants to change a 2008 law that dictates how the federal government handles immigrant children to speed up their deportations, USA Today reported Wednesday. Obama wants to amend a law so unaccompanied minors are not handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services. Instead, the president wants to allow Border Patrol agents to decide whether to deport the children to their home country, the newspaper reported.

• On Wednesday, Congressman Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and 32 other members of Congress sent Obama a letter asking that he end the program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – a 2-year-old program that allows some people brought to the United States as children temporary permission to live and work legally in the country. The program, the legislators said, encourages "young individuals to put themselves in peril, leave their home countries, and make a long and dangerous journey to enter our country illegally."

Among the wave of Central American refugees fleeing their homeland, some young children and those with special medical needs have found temporary refuge with an Orange County-based child welfare agency.

The Crittenton Services for Children and Families, which operates programs in five Southern California counties, is housing up to 50 juveniles at a time in an undisclosed location. There, officials offer them education, recreation and other services while they work to identify a close relative who can assume responsibility for the youths.

“It’s not a luxury compound by any means. But we make them feel safe and comfortable,” said Joyce Capelle, Crittenton’s chief executive officer.

Approximately 150 children who crossed the border illegally and on their own in the last couple of months have stayed at the facility.

Capelle asked that the location not be identified following an angry confrontation Tuesday in Murrieta, where buses carrying migrants flown in from Texas turned away as they were approaching a Border Patrol station.

Protesters from the Inland Empire, Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties outnumbered supporters meeting the arrival of the buses.

“I wish people, whatever you feel about the immigration problem, separate that from these children. We have a group of traumatized kids who need care,” Capelle said. “I would like to think people draw the line at threatening children.”

The government provides care and placement for children who come into the United States without an adult guardian through the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Crittenton, a 48-year-old agency that began housing migrant children in 2006, is one of approximately 100 program shelters across the nation contracted to take in the unaccompanied minors. Due to a recent large surge of migrant children, the government also has opened temporary facilities at three military bases, including one at the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme. The program budget was $868 million in fiscal year 2014, according to a government website.

The children who arrive at the Crittenton facility were transferred from Ventura County, where they were screened and given childhood vaccinations. The minors are younger than 12 or have medical, mental or behavioral issues or are pregnant girls, Capelle said.

“Most of the kids here experience a great deal of trauma, but they are extremely resilient,” Capelle said.

The children are considered federal detainees and may not leave the facility unless accompanied by an adult, until they are reunited with a sponsor, typically a parent or close relative. They are ordered to return for a hearing before immigration authorities and are subject to deportation proceedings, although some will qualify for asylum or other immigration relief.

At Crittenton, their stay has averaged about three weeks, although some leave with a sponsor after seven days. During that time, they are offered six hours of in-house education Monday through Friday, taught through an English as a Second Language Program, Capelle said. Many of the children, especially those from Guatemala, speak indigenous languages, not Spanish, she said.

The juveniles are housed one to three per room and have access to the facility’s recreational areas. They have a playground, volleyball games, a small soccer field and a garden area. It takes several days for them to feel they are safe, she said.

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